Lu Mountains, Chinese (Pinyin and Wade-Giles romanization) Lu Shan, famous mountain area in northern Jiangxi province, southeastern China. Situated to the south of Jiujiang and west of Xingzi, it looks north over the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) valley and east over Lake Poyang. It forms the eastern extremity of the Mufu Mountains. Its highest peak, Dahanyang, is about 4,836 feet (1,474 metres) above sea level. The Lu Mountains were venerated as a holy area from ancient times, when they were called the Kuang Mountains. In early times they were the home of many prominent Buddhists and the intellectual centre of Daoism from the 6th to the 8th century. The Lu Mountains also have associations with many famous poets and literary figures, who referred to them as Kuanglu. Before World War II the mountains still had some 300 temples and Daoist shrines and were a popular summer resort for Western residents of Shanghai and the coastal cities; the area has continued to thrive as a resort. The mountains and surrounding region also have been the subject of geological studies of glaciers of the Quaternary Period (i.e., about the past 2.6 million years).

A path in the Lu Mountains, Jiangxi province, China.

Heather Angel

Lu Mountains, Jiangxi province, China, designated a World Heritage site in 1996.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The Lu massif forms a horst-style fault block that integrates mountains, rivers, and lakes into one unit. It combines a celebrated mountain with beautiful scenery and is renowned worldwide for its grandeur, unusual shape, and elegance. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996, the Lu Mountains scenic area encompasses some 117 square miles (302 square km) and is protected by an outlying zone of 193 square miles (500 square km).

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...short and moderate hills separated by a network of streams, the country traversed by this range consists of a succession of small valleys with bottomlands from 5 to 12 miles (8 to 19 km) wide. The Lu Mountains, in the north, rise sharply to some 4,800 feet (1,460 metres) from the lowlands west of Lake Poyang.

The Lu Mountains south of Jiujiang, which skirt the western side of Lake Poyang and tower over the Yangtze to the north, constitute one of China’s most scenic and historically significant locations. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996, the massif has become a major tourist destination and a well-known summer resort area. Pop. (2002 est.) 411,532.

sheng (province) of southeast-central China. It is bounded by the provinces of Hubei and Anhui to the north, Zhejiang and Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, and Hunan to the west. On the map its shape resembles an inverted pear. The port of Jiujiang, some 430 miles (690 km) upstream from...